


it's the quiet night that breaks me

by scatteredmoonlight



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Established Relationship, Hiding Medical Issues, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Recovery, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-10-24 18:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20710361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scatteredmoonlight/pseuds/scatteredmoonlight
Summary: Poe has a nightmare about Kylo Ren.





	it's the quiet night that breaks me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smaragdbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/gifts).

Shackles pinned Poe’s wrists to his chair. They were tight and constricting, providing little slack, yet he enjoyed the faint tapping that he managed to accomplish. He banged his wrists, ears perked and waiting for a sound from the troopers guarding the holding cell. Maybe the troopers would get so annoyed, they'd punch him again. That wouldn’t be boring, at least. 

The doors swung open, and the air changed — there was a bright luminescence, a frigid drop in temperature. Then a heat enveloped the room. As the sweltering, oppressive hear neared Poe's chair, which it did faster that the blink of an eye, all the light in the room disappeared dissipated — visual light, as well as hope. 

Cape billowing in his wake, Kylo Ren emerged from the darkness. The silver lines on his helmet glinted back the horror in Poe’s eyes. “Tell me,” drawled Kylo Ren, head quirking to one side, then to the other. “You know where the map is.” 

Poe fought back the urge to recoil. 

Kylo Ren leaned back. “How quaint. You’re resisting. Perhaps this might persuade you.” 

It all melted away. 

The walls turned to oozing black lava. The floor gave away to infinite nothingness. The air was neither cold nor hot, light nor dark. Yet the chair and shackles remained, as did Kylo Ren’s looming figure and the eyeless gaze that saw too much. Poe could feel the beginnings of Kylo Ren’s presence dipping into his mind, upturning all corners of his consciousness, settling his slithering hands on everything irreverent and private and dear. 

Then the room stopped melting. In a lukewarm forest covered in a blanket of snow, Poe’s chair was perched between two endless, thick trees, bestowing upon him a front row view of Kylo Ren and his three pronged lightsaber crackling to life. 

Swallowing back a knot in his throat, Poe watched in agony as Finn stepped out from behind a tree, grasping a lightsaber that both had color and no color. “No,” moaned Poe, shaking his head. This time when he banged his shackled hands against the chair, it was not to annoy a stormtrooper. “No, no, _no_.” 

Finn raised the lightsaber, angling it over his chest. Kylo Ren took long strides. After three steps, he was in front of Finn, casting Finn’s stunning face in ghastly red light. 

“Finn, no, don’t,” cried Poe, convulsing against his binds. “_No!_” 

Kylo Ren raised his crackling lightsaber. As his magnificent weapon struck the untimely blow, Finn stared back with the same hardened stare, unrelenting, courageous, full of bravado... 

*** 

Poe’s eyes snapped open, and he fought to control his breaths. 

Tears dotted the corners of his eyes, but he ignored them, fought so hard to ignore them, because if he didn’t let it show — if he didn’t let anyone see — then maybe he still had a chance at fighting it. 

He listened to the calm breaths of Finn sleeping curled up beside him in their bed. 

He counted down from ten and remembered some basic facts to ground him: He slept at home on base beside his boyfriend of one month, Finn, who really didn’t need to know these things about him. He had training of new recruits in the morning, who needed a strong Commander to guide them, not one who cried over bad dreams. He ran a hand through his hand and rubbed harshly at his eyes, fingertips soaked from tears. 

Finn shifted beside him, and Poe stayed very still, not wanting to wake him up. Finn snored for a second, then went back fast asleep. 

*** 

An hour passed going by the clock on the wall, and that was what Finn finally woke up because of Poe’s light rustling. He couldn’t fall back asleep, and his legs had grown restless from laying down. Finn grumbled awake, unconsciously tossing back the covers to reveal himself in Poe’s borrowed clothes, nothing special but a basic grey t-shirt and some boxers, which Poe thought looked better on Finn than it ever did on him. He stretched a little and blearly opened his eyes and looked around, groggily searching for the clock. At the sight of it, he groaned. 

Poe couldn’t help himself, enamored at the sight, and laughed. 

Finn smiled. “Good morning.” 

Poe spent the past hour hyperventilating quietly and feared it might show in his voice. But he wouldn’t stop himself from replying. That would only raise suspicion. “Good morning,” he said, a little thickly, but it was early in the morning. It made sense for his voice to sound warped. 

Finn slipped onto his side and pulled Poe closer to him, kissing him softly. Poe got lost in the physical sensation, the pleasant comfort of Finn against his lips, and set a hand over Finn’s hip to draw him nearer. Finn traced a thumb along his cheek, triggering Poe to groan so softly it sounded almost like a purr, only Finn froze. 

“Have you been… crying?” said Finn, flabbergasted. 

_Party’s over._ Poe broke away from him, shoving his face into his pillow, vision blacking out from the world. “Yeah.” 

Finn was silent for a long while. “Was it that dream again?” 

“Bingo,” he said, voice muffled. 

Finn ran fingers through his hair, pulling lightly at the strands in a fashion that made Poe want to groan again. “It’s only a dream. We’re here now. He can’t touch us.” 

“I know. But it felt so real at the time.” 

“Have you spoken to Kalonia?” 

“What would she even do? We don’t have a psychologist. She’d just recommend I go to the one that we don’t have.” Instead, he had the luxury of dumping all his issues onto Finn, who already had a mountain of his own to climb and dominate. “I have to be awake in three hours and I just can’t do it. How is anyone supposed to sleep after that? I’m just going to return to it.” 

Finn rubbed his shoulders. “You don’t know that.” 

“I so do.” 

Finn didn’t say anything, just pressed in more firm strokes on his back. Eventually, he said, “I’ll hold you. I won’t let anyone get to you.” 

His stomach fluttered, and he was so tired that he lept at the chance. He turned away from the pillow. With his eyes adjusted to total darkness, Finn was a silhouette in the lightless room. “You will?” 

“I will.” 

Poe considered it, then slowly slipped away from the pillow. They shifted until he was lying with his head over Finn’s chest, Finn’s arms wrapped protectively around him. Poe closed his eyes, listening to Finn’s steady heartbeat, and tried to fall back asleep.


End file.
